OKAY i will finally post something here after not posting something since november 9th last year.

feels funny to say last year now eh? 2008 went by really fast, and so many things happened, both for better or for worse. so, as of november 9th: pied piper happened, wisdom tooth extraction happened, youth camp happened, cambodia happened, CIC happened, christmas happened, malacca happened, escape theme park happened, and new year happened.

like breanna said, you're just too busy having fun to bother updating anything! and yes, this last part of 2008 has been really fun. i've spent so much time with people who mean so much to me and i don't think i've ever had this much, well i won't say fun, let's just say that i feel that there's some sort of peace in this world. it's an indescribable feeling, and well, every year's different, but it's been a good end to 2008(:

so we're rattin' it up,
we're rattin' it up,
we're rattin' it up,
rattin' it down tonight.

long time since i last wrote something.

school's ended officially for about a week now, and i just advanced to jc2. which is both good and bad, cause i have to take 4 papers in january, good because that'll make me study during the holidays.

pied piper's coming on full swing now, haha literally and figuratively. had our first theatre session today, and i think it went pretty okay on site. (: that's all i can talk about really, cause that's all i've been doing. that and odyssey, which has the nicest opening dance ever.

lucky, by jason mraz pops into my head now.
i need to sleep before i drop dead tomorrow again.

okay, this is the first day i'm able to actually sit back and breathe.

ever since the last day of promos, it's been thing after thing going on. first up, open house. nearly died dancing 6 times in 6 hours, plus two times of rehearsal. that came after a sleepless night preparing the open house booth slides. i have a picture in my phone showing my frazzled face. sam had to restrain me from hitting the wall with my head too hard.

CCAAB after that. one of the most useful things i've done in my life. learnt so so much from there and managed to bond with becky, lian and the other cca leaders. lost 4 kg and learnt stuff that can't be weighed by any unit of measurement(:

straight after CCAAB, thrown back into the porridge. don't know why i used that analogy, but yes. nasty that we have to perform for the ASEAN schools' gathering. new dance in three sessions. to cut the long story short, we panicked till monday, while juggling prince at the same time. then after the performance on monday, had odyssey auditions, which was crap. got in though.

yes! that's the past week. chinese in a week, OP in two weeks, and pied piper in a month. we are dead.

i'm a medium well done steak.

which means i'm two thirds done yes? :D just had my chinese paper today. it didn't go fantastic, but better than terms though! and yeah, papers are almost over, got math on friday and drama on tuesday, so the bulk of the studying's over and done with for the year(: went to get some math done after school with farhana and then back home for tuition. chinese, in case you were wondering, alevels is at the end of october.

i'm just going to enjoy my week of relative freedom from now till next monday evening before the whirlwind picks up on the very day i end. no more 'home in daylight'. you know you should be paid when you feel more stressed after exams than during exams.

now i feel like having steak.

it has begun.

had GP and chem yesterday, finishing off a third of my subjects. i don't think i've ever felt more relieved when i put down my pen when the chem exam ended. i have a good feeling about this one, for both gp and chem. not to get As, but at least to pass, which means that i'm effectively promoted(: but we shall wait and see.

econs on monday, followed by chinese on tuesday. it's just speeding by so fast. and then math on friday, and dep on the following tuesday. then promos are over and drama shall begin again. well, it's still gonna be busy as hell, or even busier, but honestly i prefer drama things to studying, which is obvious, but not really if you're doing what we do.

i'm gonna be attending church fully, finally. with the chem tuition going on the past few weeks in the lead up to the exam, i've been skipping service, which is not good. i miss you guys(:

hahah yes, and happy 2nd month to bre and amos(: continue having fun(:
shamsundhrbala puthrputhrmuki. ohman i miss typing that out. okay. dinner calls, penang hawkers call, penang hawkers at york hotel call(: then i will lose all that weight by walking to the car, and sleeping(: ohman i'm so irritating.

it's a week left to promos. since the last time i blogged, it's been a rollercoaster of everything and i just want promos to be over quickly so i can just get something off my back.

anyway, BOOM was amazing. just came back from it, really good stuff, comedy was tight, soundscape was really really good! made you get chills up and down your spine throughout the show. definitely one of the better plays DEP's brought us to(: go watch it before the run's over!

watched Love Labours Lost last week by the young company. i thought it was not too bad, just that some text got truncated and some characters didn't feel the lines being said and the casting was a bit weird. BUT on the whole, it was pretty well done, cause i got the meaning and didn't fall asleep, which is good for any shakespeare play(:

and on the note of 'amazing'. shafiq got 3.96 for his GPA, which is like wow. three point nine six.
sleepytime.

Inventio and drama exams are over! :D

so yes, inventio on tuesday night was amazing. got to school at 9 to do the bus chart, then had our tech run before we put on makeup and all. vocal warmups, i think for the first time, made me feel like my voice was superman. thanks for the well-wishes before the show! (: got onto stage and everything just flowed nicely, audience was fantastic and i think we did pretty well! met the seniors after the show and realised that we all haven't met since 1965 or something. went back with the usual easties and was talking with clarice, something i havent' done as well since a long time ago. thanks for coming guys(:

next day, went back, and our group got an A for inventio:D went for lunch with the madams at sketchers and ate two plates of pasta.

the other drama exam just finished not too long ago, went rather well, i tripped on a few lines, but otherwise covered up pretty nicely. she asked some difficult questions which i completely bullshitted my way through, and i think she knows as well. hahah ohwell, we'll see what happens.

now to study for promos.

Inventio is in 2 days.

time passes by so quickly. in july, the DEP alevels. in may, theasthai and syf . april, pride and prejudice. march, south africa. february, night of laughter. it's been three quarters of a year, and everything feels as it it were done weeks ago. i remember how nervous i felt during NOL, how amazed i was in south africa, the adrenaline rush during P&P, the jitteryness of theasthai and syf, and the support while performing at the alevels.

if there was an adjective to describe inventio, i think i'd use the word companionship. these five people i've worked with over the past month or so have been amazing. from stressing about what this gs was going to be about to nearly killing each other on stage pushing and pulling, i think we've bonded together really well(: i don't think i'd ask for another group of people to do inventio or even my alevels with(: so let's all get A for inventio!

and yes, welcome back breanna! thanks for the insane amount of sugar you've given me(:

hello all, hello my thai friend! :D

yes, so GS is done!! as in the shape and concept, that is. we still need to improve on our precision and transition 2 though. but well done guys:D we're gonna be spectacular! breanna there's a ticket for inventio on the 2nd september waiting for you when you get back, courtesy of the neighbour and sister, if you want one more for any particular reason, tag my blog yes? or tell me when you get back(:

right, so i will not spoil the bus stop any more.

today wasn't my day. was late for comm meeting because of change of plans in the morning, screwed up my math test, had econs tutorial, had a meeting after school, and was feeling on edge the whole morning basically. excuse me if i offended anyone today, it just wasn't my day. BUT, today was a good day, because we got our GS down and nicely set at 25 mins, i had a very amusing pw lesson, and i'm going to sleep in 20 mins time, WHICH IS ELEVEN O'CLOCK:D

"And what of Troy? What of Troy?" just imagine(:

I've written my speech and drama speech 13 days before the exam. congratulations to me.

I apologize for the demonic thumping sound coming from your speakers.
it's a dirt bike game, which is ridiculously hard to play, and i put it there for some quick relief.

GS is moving along, WE GOT OUR SCRIPT! so very good, we're starting to get blocking down and today's a headache because i have to churn out the new soundscapes. speech and drama exams are two days after inventio, so i am seriously screwed because i haven't memorised ANYTHING, well fine, half memorised stuff. and i haven't written my speech, but i figure i'm just going to bullcrap my way through either the stanislavskian method of acting-naturalist theatre, or the brechtian theatre convention.

i shall memorise three out of four pieces tonight! and do the soundscape.
shamsundhr balaputhrputhrmuki.

shamsundhr balaputhrputhrmuki.
thanks vinesh, that's stuck in my head.

so that week was over, the most stressful and the most anticipated one of the third term. Had the Day I Met the Prince on saturday, which was rather good, i could feel the magic as a performer(: ensemble was tight, no one majorly forgot their lines. Thanks seniors for coming, thank you grace, esther, daddy, bre, amos, josh for coming(: i come out, see you people and i'm like "whoa. that was scary!" but thanks for the support!

sunday, tapestry. there were so many brainfart moments it wasn't funny. but i guess overall, i think we did really good(: considering we didn't suddenly drop dead in the middle of the dance floor. hahaha thank you all for coming again!!

and we managed to watch Yellow Monkey on saturday night after Prince. fantastic movements, heightened, natural, but ritualised, realist to surrealist. about a man on drugs, rapes a girl, sees his problems at home, goes into side effects, trembles, all five of them, grey structure moves forward, blackout. haha sorry, that was an attempt to remind myself so i can use it for GS(:

okay, here's to my first free night in a while.

There was a cheer in my body as i finished econnect today.

so that was the last of the work to be done this week, or rather, by tuesday. chinese, drama, gp and all, and you feel accomplished after finishing all that work, and living to tell the tale. well, this week's only just beginning, and from tomorrow til sunday i don't get home till 11pm.

tapestry suddenly got fun again, i think it had to do with the costumes. though i look like 3in1 colgate toothpaste. vivocity, 4.45pm guys, not 3.

and things are just coming along nicely(:

what's the difference between a punching bag and me at this time? if you give a slight push to the punching bag, it goes down and bounces back up. i stay down.

i think the medicine i'm taking retains the phlegm in my body, then works on killing the bacteria there. thing is, it makes the intake of air extremely difficult. and attempting to take in truckloads of air while dancing made me dizzy. so i got extremely winded after TWO runs of the whole dance.

anyway. i know this again is cheap advertising, but then hey, who's gonna see this but four people?

Day I Met The Prince
16th September

Tapestry
17th September

i can't remember dates and times, but if you want to go, msg me and i'll find out for you(:
now, it's to garageband to fix that soundscape.

emo nemo. haha isn't that right bre?

this stupid flu/cold/bronchitis thing looks like it's clearing up, and the frequency of coughing out bundles of phlegm is reduced much. which is rather good, because then i won't garner looks from people whenever i blow my nose to get rid of the clogged up fluid trapped there.

gs last night was headachey, but productive, in a way. in any case, we're clear of the main storyboard, but the scripting is the thing that's trapping us now. for that matter:

inventio
2nd september
acjc. $5

a reminder that out there somewhere, there are people waiting to get you.

i don't think i'm the only one feeling it though, but that was a timely reminder that if your weak point shows, a touch to that affects you. i was at the dentist yesterday and well, because of this cold/flu thingy, my gums got a bit infected. when she was cleaning my teeth, a mere touch to the gum got me wincing in pain.

maybe this is why i try so hard to be good at everything, to win all the time, so that no one faults me for doing badly and hits that weak point. it's only coming in full force when this year started after what happened last year. add that to my already overpowering D personality, and i don't want to see what's going to happen to me in the near future.

so hello, the five of you. you've got a golden ticket.

i think everything's sorta picked up again.

i've watched the dark knight and hellboy 2 and they're both fantastic movies. the dark knight especially. heath ledger as the joker was amazing. the way he actually got into the mindset of a psychopath, coupled with the gorgeously freaky makeup, tripled with the whole way he moved. that was like movie of the year.

hellboy. that one was pretty good too, i thought, but he looked way too scrawny. arms half the size of that in the first movie. nice storyline though. but the golden army wasn't that impressive as they made it out to be. okay fine, it kinda was, but i was secretly hoping for a bit of damage on a sad city so that hellboy and his friends could come and save the city and have a nice bang for an ending.

i had a nice monday today, had a percussion guy for dep and then tapestry rehearsals. oh, and the chinese teacher didn't come, so we didn't have our four-period chinese lesson(:

okay, now's where i stress about GS.

go playboys.

i need to learn how to manage my time. and watch the thunder tour. and pass promos.

If you tried to take a picture of the whole sky with a camera, could you? If you tried by yourself, you'd just be going in circles, unsure whether you've taken that part of the sky or not. frustration would follow, and you'd end up on the grass, disillusioned and fed up with the seemingly insurmountable task. people might come by and laugh at you, in your futile attempt to do a good job. other people might come by, have a glance, and walk off, either nodding in approval of your fighting spirit or shaking their head in disbelief. but then there are those who come with a drink, get you to sit down and rest, take the camera from your hands and help you snap a few pictures. they then help you back up on your feet and go back to their own insurmountable tasks.

this week has been like that. i've tried and tried to take my own pictures, and more than once i've fallen down, disillusioned and confused and frustrated. more than once i've had people sneer and put me down. more than once i've gotten a few smiles, more than once a few disapproving looks. and more than once i've had people stop by and tell me to take a rest, they themselves sacrificing their own bank of emotional sanity to help me get back on my feet. and i thank God for these people in my life.

it's really made me think, if you do something you love or are passionate about, you'd put in everything you have to make sure you do it to the best of your ability. encountering a setback in the technical sense is part of the job, and challenges are relished and enjoyed. but when someone makes a joke out of your dedication and passion, you fall twice as hard. you end up lying on the grass, disillusioned and frustrated, unsure of your own ability to carry on.

it's funny how something you disliked in the past comes round and now it suddenly has this appeal to it. newer things become overrated and you suddenly don't feel like using it anymore. i've had a sudden love for my sister's yamaha keyboard over my so-called guitar and drum fortes, possibly because i can play the piano and think at the same time. what i'm thinking transfers to my fingers and i realised that i play more emotively and there's a certain flow and storyline to my improvisations on the keyboard and i think i should record it someday.

it's the weekend now, and though things aren't exactly settled, there's a certain comfort in the fact that you can wake up at 11am. so that's what i'm going to do now. catch up on all the lost sleep i've accumulated through this very trying week.

and there are a few who pointed up at the sky and say, "hey john, commit everything to God. he'll give you a wide-angle lens." thanks guys(:

well this has been quite a week. IS and GS A Levels. it's so important that it's in caps.

yes, so monday i had my oral for alevels, and ohmygoodness i am going to fail. i made up nearly half the words in the passage, and rambled through my conversation. ohwell. whatever. so then on tuesday i crewed for the j2's GSs. good stuff man, everyone was really good and all(:

thursday had clarice's piece, which was amazing. people crying and all. :D yes, then had dinner at nydc and tried my first nydc cheesecake, which was goooood(: so went back tired, so tired in fact, that it made my morning today the most stressful one in my life. and it'll probably take half an hour to explain it in full detail, but in other words, i woke up late.

and then after kester's IS, which went really well too, i was crewing the rest of the day AND i lost SIX KG.yes, that's right(: 86-6=80. oh and i'm now 184cm(:

hoho. pied piper tomorrow.